Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Cop Suspended Without Pay After Putting Man In Apparent Chokehold On Rockaway Boardwalk
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Jun 21, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Jun 21, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
An NYPD officer who put a Black man into an apparent banned chokehold on the boardwalk at Rockaway Beach on Sunday has been suspended without pay.
A video shows at least four officers on top of the man on a Queens boardwalk, with one officer holding his arm around the pinned man's neck, identified as 35-year-old Ricky Bellevue.
The incident began with three people hanging out on the boardwalk, angry at police for watching them. During the encounter, officers tackle Bellevue and choke him. A witness cries, "Yo, stop choking him, bro....Yo, he's choking him, let him go, bro."
Another person heard on the video says, "He's out, he's out. Look, look officer, look at this, he's out."
Bellevue, lying face down with his hands behind his back, is motionless in the video and appeared to be passed out. Body camera footage released on Sunday evening shows he was conscious and speaking, sitting at an ambulance while handcuffed.
The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the incident. The department suspended the officer without pay on Sunday, according to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea.
"Accountability in policing is essential," Shea said. In a recent police reform effort, body camera footage is required to be turned over within 30 days in certain situations, though the NYPD retains the ability to edit footage.
"This matter is taken extremely seriously and we expect to have an update this evening as the investigation unfolds," the NYPD said in a statement.
Before the chokehold, the officer indicates one of the men has a mental health condition. One of the men asks, "is there a reason why y'all in military formation around me right now?"
Cops tackle Bellevue to the ground—the only person detained in the group of three—and then arrest him. Cops took him to an ambulance, while he repeatedly asks not to be touched, says he is asthmatic, and calls for his brother.
"Y'all talking about y'all here to help us, y'all here to kill us...I always get beat up by police," he said on the video. A woman watching the detainment began yelling at the officers, angry at the incident, and an officer said the three were acting "crazy" and "intoxicated," repeating that the man has a mental health history.
"What changed everything is when he grabbed something and squared up and was going to hit my officer who was standing over there," the officer said.
It is not clear from the video that NYPD released what exactly the man who was detained grabbed and if he raised an object or his hands at police.
"The video is very concerning," a spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio said in an email. "We're glad the NYPD is immediately launching an investigation to get to the bottom of what happened."
Late Sunday, de Blasio tweeted the suspension and body cam footage release was the quickest he had ever seen. "This is how it needs to be," he wrote.
On Monday morning, de Blasio deferred to the district attorney when asked during a press briefing if he thought there should be criminal charges.
The officer who held the man in a chokehold was David Afanador, according to a video showing the choking and Afanador's badge number.
In 2014, Afanador faced assault charges for hitting a teenager in the face with his gun during an alleged drug bust in Brooklyn. He was later found not guilty. Afanador, a cop since 2005, has been involved in at least three lawsuits against the city, according to the CAPstat database.
Chokeholds were recently formally criminalized as a part of state police reform efforts amid mass demonstrations in New York City against racist police violence. In 2014, Officer Daniel Pantaleo performed a similar chokehold on Eric Garner, killing him during an enforcement action against Garner for selling loose cigarettes in Staten Island. Pantaleo was not fired until last year.
During an emergency protest outside the 100th Precinct on Sunday afternoon with the Queens Defenders, a protester named Michael addressed police officers standing behind barricades at the precinct directly: "Each one of y'all, cops over here, y'all should be ashamed of yourselves."
Queens Defenders' executive director Lori Zeno said, "Who got choked? Who got pounced on? Who got injured? Who got arrested?"—noting that the two white men in the video were not detained.
"It is important that we keep holding police officers accountable for their actions," Zeno, who's representing Bellevue, said in a Sunday evening statement. "The officer involved here used a choke hold to strangle my client until he was unconscious, because according to the police officer, he was being disorderly. This officer needs to be fired and prosecuted. He is the one who committed a crime in this circumstance. We will not stop until the people of Far Rockaway can feel safe as they travel through their own neighborhood. They should not fear the very people who are sworn to protect them."
"This police brutality needs to stop," the protester, Michael, added. "We need to put an end to this because black lives matter...We don't deserve this."
Tagged
police brutality
2020 protests
nypd
rockaway beach
racism
queens
Sydney Pereira
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
NY's prison system is in crisis. It's driving staff away from the job.
The state is currently struggling with a 56% vacancy rate among prison workers.
By
Emily Russell
Published Oct 4, 2026 at 7:00 a.m. ET
NYPD searching for suspect after fatal stabbing in Queens
Officers responding to a call at the intersection of Jamaica Avenue and 173rd Street around 1 a.m. found 29-year-old Sulimon Ferrier, who had multiple stab wounds to his chest, police said.
By
Ben Feuerherd
News
NYPD searching for suspect after fatal stabbing in Queens
Officers responding to a call at the intersection of Jamaica Avenue and 173rd Street around 1 a.m. found 29-year-old Sulimon Ferrier, who had multiple stab wounds to his chest, police said.
By
Ben Feuerherd
NYPD: 2 suspects in off-duty officer stabbing tried to rob victim
By
Jill Webb
Astoria-born Chip City announces sudden closure days after former CEO sues
By
Catalina Gonella
US judge tosses Trump lawsuit targeting pro-Palestinian protesters in NJ
By
Willow Higgins
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .